I will be joining in for #inktober as well, using Luke Fitzsimmons (lukefitzsimmonsart on Instagram) Halloween prompt list!

I am so excited about this and have been preparing for it for a few days now. My objective is to complete the whole list! I am also hoping to make a few mini tutorials during October, to explain my work process (for more extensive art tutorials, click here and here).

I am hoping you will join me, either with this prompt list or any other! Wish you the best for October and good luck!

If finally made my own commission guide. In the post below you can find out more about how to commission me, if commisions are open and you can view the prices. There is a new button in the top menu as well, where you can find the same information.

Commission Information

Thank you so much for your interest in my artwork! If you have any questions left after reading this guide, please, do not hesitate to ask anything. You can find my e-mail adress in the description above.

Notes:

I recommend you read my Terms of Service before commissioning anything. You will find these terms below the commission information.

Prices listed in this guide are in € (Euro) and they represent the minimum amount estimate.

This guide does not apply to commercial work, which means that the artwork I provide can only be used for personal purposes. If you are interested in commercial work, it would be most convenient to e-mail me.

I have to state that I will not draw any adult themed work. Artistic nudity and mild gore are both acceptable subjects.

Portrait

Simple – monochrome

A simple portrait with a stylised background, in any colour you may prefer. My personal preference goes out to any blue hue.

Price estimate: €30 (starting price)

Simple – colour

Simple coloured portraits with a monochrome background. They can either have a smooth look or a textured one.

Price estimate: €40 (starting price)

Detailed

These portraits include a high level of detail and colourful compositions, as well as additional background lights.

Price estimate: €60 (starting price)

Illustration

Half body – simple background

Illustration with a simple background (low in detail, monochrome with some stylisation)

Price estimate: €80 (starting price)

Half body – detailed background

There is more attention to detail or stylisation in these illustrations. They can also contain more small subjects (i.e. the Athena drawing).

Price estimate: €90 (starting price)

Full body – simple background

Illustration with a simple background (low in detail, monochrome with some stylisation)

Price estimate: €100 (starting price)

Full body – detailed background

These illustrations include a high level of detail, with detailed backgrounds as well. Prices can vary a lot, the price stated below is an estimate.

Art collaboration with Jake (jakobcreative on Instagram and Artstation)

References are essential for creating sketches, studies, painting and drawings. Today I will be discussing some usefull sites, accounts and other resources where you can find reference material for your artwork. You will find the direct links to said sites and accounts in the discriptions below.

Deviantart

Deviantart is a wonderful art platform that encourages artists from all media to post their artwork. You can also find stock photos, which are great for reference photos. These are my favourite accounts:

This account has a great variety of subjects: from general poses to combat references, from slender figures to big people, featuring both female and male subjects. Her site (which you can find here ) also has a sketch feature, which allows you to quickly switch between images ( which is great if you want to spend more time on your anatomy/pose studies).

These stock photos are from Mirish; a young Swedish woman who has a gallery full of wonderfull, high quality images. Besides offering dynamic posed references, these pictures can also be used as inspiration: most of them offer great light/shadows and background scenery.

I use the stock photos from RobynRose often for my quick anatomy and facial studies; her account offers the most consistent pack of poses and facial references.

Disclaimer: Note that many of the stockphoto accounts have rules using their stockphotos. Please, be respectful, read their rules and follow them when you do use their photos.

Books

Sometimes, the best place to find references are in an artbook. I own several, though it does take some time (and money) to invest in them. However, if your Internet connection, for whatever reason, is not working (horror), you can always get your book of the shelf and continue drawing.

Portrait and Anatomy

These are my oldest books and I believe I got them for my birthday, many years ago. But these are just classics, with great images and easy steps to follow. The books are in Dutch, but Giovanni Civardi (not only an artist but a docent of Medicine (Anatomy) as well!) is published in many countries.

Vincent van Gogh

Artbooks like these are just splendid. Not only do they tell you the artists journey, but they show their artworks as well. Perfect reference material and a pleasant way to get a bit closer to your favourite artist.

Pinterest

Pinterest is the easiest way to find reference photos, but it can be a bit trickier to use when you are looking for a specific reference. I currently manage three Pinterest boards where I store my references, you can find them here:

Today I have a step-by-step tutorial of one of my favourite pieces yet; Newt Scamander from Fantastic Beasts! I painted the drawing about a month before the movie came out, so the sign for the Blind Pig is not accurate, but I hope you can forgive me for that.

If you want to know how I start a new drawing, I would suggest you visit these tutorials:

1. First of all, I picked the images below as reference pictures: one to serve as reference for the global painting and for the initial pose of Newt, and one for his face ( I wanted him to face towards the spectator).

2. Set up a blank document (this one was 6500 x 9000 px with a 300 DPI) and start with your basic lines.

Just make sure you fill up those basic shapes and lines. As you can see in the next image, there are some differences in value in the buildings: The ones that appear to be close by have a higher value than the buildings that are in the background.

2. Time to present Newt! I added a new layer and set up his basic lines in a complementary colour so that I would not get my lines mixed up. I adjusted his height a little bit with the help of the Transform option (Crtl + T).

3. I continued drawing Newt by defining his initial line-art with a darker colour and made progress on his facial features. The buildings in the background as well as the ground got a more smoothed look as I gradually worked on top of the original lines.

4. As a next step, Newt got some more shading and value to add details.

5. Colours! I wanted to have an orange – blue palette for this drawing, so I made an orange gradient- and blue gradient layer and set them to softlayer, the image below shows the result of that change.

I then kept playing with some colours layers and their options before I settled on a definitive palette. Furthermore, the street got a neat texture (found on http://www.textures.com )

6. Portrait time! I set up the face reference next to my drawing document and began painting his gorgeous face. ( To see how you can paint a portait from photo reference, click here: Reference tutorial )

7. The following steps included more definition in colour as well as adding more details and shading to the surrounding buildings.

8. I felt like there was someting missing so I started adding Frank into the painting. Deliberatly placed him between the buildings, hoping it would create a better dynamic in composition.

9. And I thought the Niffler should be in there to! In the background you can also see a Hippogriff. Again, made sure that the objects that I placed in the background have a more ‘merged’ look.

10. Color dodge time! For the final painting I added several more layers to play with colours, lights, ‘special effects’. As you probably have noticed I added a sign to the rights, as well as the title in the front. The blue and orange clouds you can see at Newts feet are a seperate color dodge layer. ( To see how to color dodge, click here: Color Dodge )

And that is about it! Any thoughts on the next tutorial? Let me know in the comments below.